Formation and Functioning of a Biblical Eldership

Introduction: Review and Today's Focus

0:03 Now, we come again this morning, brethren, to take up the subject which we began to consider last week, namely, the normal framework for the task of oversight. And in our study last week, I set before you, first of all, two major presuppositions which condition all of the material that I laid before you on that occasion, and certainly those two presuppositions condition everything said today, namely, the interchangeable usage of the terminology elder, bishop, overseer, all of this biblical language, and then, of course, the strategic importance of the whole subject of a functioning eldership in the light of several biblical or categories of biblical truth that we considered. Then I laid before you my basic thesis, and it was this, that the normal framework for the administration of the task of oversight is that...

1:02 That of a plurality of scripturally qualified overseers functioning with genuine ecclesiastical parity and with realistic and harmonious functional diversity. I then sought to demonstrate the scriptural foundation for the four major ingredients of that thesis, and then concluded by drawing out four major exhortations from those four major ingredients. These were the four major ingredients in the thesis. Now, when the time comes for you to teach and preach on the subject of the eldership as the normal framework for the task of oversight, I trust that in addition to the materials that I laid before you, that you will, for background information as well as for some very helpful homiletical perspectives, consult Douglas Bannerman, Scripture Doctrine of the Church, pages 134 to 136. 148. That's Douglas Bannerman, 134 to 148, and pages 519 to 555. Then also, I would urge you to get Pastor Nichols' series called The Office of Elder. The code number is GND, as in dog,

2:26 1 to 12. Those are available, of course, in the Trinity Pulpit. And then Lawrence Ayers' helpful little book, published by Presbyterian and Reformed, entitled The Elders of the Church.

2:42 Now, having laid before you the basic theology of the eldership, I wish today to move on to the consideration of some very practical issues relating to the formation and functioning of a biblically-based church. I have two major divisions of today's materials. First of all, a category that I've called Practical Directives for the Establishing of a Biblical Eldership. And then secondly, Practical Directives for the Efficient Functioning of a Biblical Eldership.

Practical Directives for Establishing a Biblical Eldership: Supplication

3:19 First of all, then, Practical Directives for Establishing a Biblical Eldership. Now, as I take up this division of our subject, I must make a couple of qualifying statements by way of introduction. The first one is this, that the outworking of these principles will vary in terms of the situation in which God places you. Some of you will minister in relatively virgin soil as far as a church having any pre-existent framework. It will not be virgin soil until you are a Christian. So, if you are a Christian, you will be a Christian. If you are a Christian, you will be a Christian in terms of people's thinking about church, church life, church oversight. But in terms of the actual establishment of a framework of church government, you will be working in relatively virgin soil. Others of you will go into an

4:16 established work that has an existing framework, it has a tradition, it has a history, and the outworking of the principles that I lay before you today will vary in terms of the situation in in terms of those diverse circumstances in which you are called to minister. And then furthermore, I must say by way of introduction that the outworking of these principles must never be regarded as mechanical, since the activity of the Spirit and the dispositions of divine providence are free and many times unpredictable. For example, these principles will bend to the higher realities of God's sovereignty, of God's unpredictableness. In this aspect, as in all other areas of church life, we are shut up to the Word and the Spirit and to the good pleasure of our sovereign God. And I want you to understand that on the threshold of my setting out some practical directives for establishing a biblical eldership. These directives in their application to the real world will continually be conditioned by the particular circumstances in which God has placed you on the one hand

5:35 and the unpredictableness and sovereignty of the Holy Spirit on the other hand. Now with those qualifying statements conditioning all that follows, I should like to set these directives before you under three major headings. The directives for establishing a biblical eldership. A biblical eldership can be subsumed under these headings, supplication, cultivation, and recognition.

6:04 The first then, supplication.

6:08 Fundamental to all efforts to establish a biblical eldership must be the constant and fervent engagement in biblical prayer. Now this principle is true not only because of the general, dual relationship between prayer and the blessing of God upon the total life and ministry of the church, but because of two very specific issues related to this subject of establishing a biblical eldership. First of all, it is God and God alone who makes men into true overseers. It is God and God alone who makes men into true overseers. Ephesians 4, 9-11 points us in the direction of Christ, the ascended Christ, giving gifts to his church, among them being shepherds and teachers.

7:09 When Paul exhorts to sober self-assessment with respect to gifts in Romans 12, 4 and following, he indicates that those gifts are given according to God's own gracious activity. 1 Corinthians 12, dealing with the subject of gifts, we are reminded that it is the Spirit who gives sovereignly as he wills, and then even in terms of sanctified desire for the office, 1 Timothy 3, 1, it is God who works in the heart of a man genuine motives to assume the responsibilities of oversight. So in the light of all of these biblical perspectives, whether we look in the direction of gifts or graces, or sanctified desires, desire for the office, God must impart them. And furthermore, it is God who makes men overseers in his flock. And Acts 20 and verse 28 is probably the watershed text which reminds us of this great principle. When Paul charges the elders, he says, take heed to yourselves and to the flock of God in which, in which the Holy Spirit has made you bishops.

8:34 It is the Holy Spirit who places them, who makes them bishops or overseers. And the apostle here underscores the great principle that I'm seeking to set before you. Supplication must be central in establishing a biblical eldership because it is God who makes men, overseers in his flock. And furthermore, the second reason why supplication must be central, it is God who makes congregations submissive to the word and to the spirit in order to recognize and receive those whom he gives.

9:18 It is God who makes congregations submissive to the word and to the spirit in order to recognize and receive those whom he gives. those whom he gives as overseers. We have tragic examples both in the Old and the New Testaments of situations in which God gave leaders to his people, but whom his people refused either to recognize or to follow in their capacity as God-given leaders. You remember the rebellion against Moses and Aaron.

9:54 You remember the Corinthian church with reference to the apostle Paul. I think one of the most humbling things in all of the epistles where he has to re-establish the validity of his apostleship.

10:11 And I've comforted people many times when they've had four or five or even a dozen or twenty families become disaffected. I said, look, you've got it rough, but have you had it so bad as to have to re-establish before the church the validity of your call? That's what Paul had to do. And he had to say, I'm speaking as a fool.

10:28 I speak as a fool. I speak as a fool. But he had to re-establish the validity of his leadership. So the Bible does record this.

10:36 We find the apostle John speaking of Diotrephes, who would not even receive an apostle, a God-given leader. Christ, the head of the church, gives apostles. Diotrephes says, I don't care who gives them. I'm not going to recognize them.

10:51 So supplication is absolutely vital and central in this matter of establishment. Establishing a biblical eldership because, on the one hand, it is God alone, ultimately, who makes men into true overseers, and it is God who makes congregations submissive to the Word and the Spirit in order to recognize and to receive those whom he gives to them. And you know from your general study of the Word, and I hope you are convinced from the constant emphasis upon this strand of truth, the Spirit and prayer are intimately bound up in the purpose of God. Luke 11.13 and Philippians 1.19 And I have lived long enough, brethren, to see the tremendous harm that has come when men have sought to implement right biblical principles by carnal means.

11:51 And since a true eldership is so vital to the well-being of the church, the enemy will not be able to overcome it. He will fight the establishment of a biblical eldership tooth and nail. If ever 2 Corinthians 10.4 should be written upon our hearts and regulate our thinking, it is at this point that it ought to be.

12:13 The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God. And one of those great weapons is the weapon of all prayer that we must wield in this whole matter of seeking, seeking to establish a biblical eldership. I'm convinced that the problems that many churches have had with the subject of eldership are a fulfillment of the promise, the negative curse promise of Jeremiah 17.5 and following.

12:46 Cursed is everyone that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord. He shall be like a heath in the desert. He shall not see when good cometh. He shall inhabit a parched place, a wilderness, a salt land where no water is.

13:07 And I'm convinced that brethren have seen in Scripture the materials that I laid out before you last week. They have seen that the normal framework for oversight is the plurality of elders, functioning with genuine ecclesiastical parity, but with realistic and functional diversity and with harmony. They've seen all of that. Then they have said, set out to establish it.

13:32 But they've set out to establish it in their own strength and in their own wisdom, and God has cursed their efforts. So much so that this is one of the reasons why you have people questioning the very framework, questioning the very thesis I laid before you. Because they have seen the tragic results. Why?

13:50 Not because of the institution, but because men have set out to establish that institution by carnal means. They have not done so. In conscious, deep prayerfulness, in dependence upon the Spirit of God, and so in the whole area of the establishment of a biblical eldership, the first directive is the directive to constant, earnest, fervent supplication, crying to the living God that He would form men into true overseers, that He would make your congregation sensitive to the norms of the world, and sensitive to the Spirit working by and with the Word that they may recognize the gift of Christ. But then you have another responsibility in establishing a biblical eldership. You must not only pray and supplicate God, but then there must be cultivation. Now I'm using the word in the sense of promoting the growth or development of something.

Practical Directives for Establishing a Biblical Eldership: Cultivation

15:00 We talk about someone cultivating his gift. We don't mean that he goes out with a metal instrument and rakes his gift over with it, but he promotes the growth or development. And here we ought to look upon the congregation as the garden of God and believe that within that garden there are some plants whom the Lord will cause to grow into scripturally qualified and biblically functioning elders. And while we plead with God to grow such plants, to send down the influences of heaven, the rain of the Spirit's influence, the light and warmth of His own Word, the same God to whom we pray has put some gardening tools in our hands and He says, now you cultivate those plants. Now God alone can grow them, but may I say it reverently, God isn't going to step out of heaven and do the cultivating that you and I can and ought to do when we are thinking and acting biblically. How then can we engage in the work of cultivation with the view of establishing a biblical eldership? Well, let me suggest that we can do that work of cultivation in three ways.

16:18 So God has given us three cultivating tools. Number one,

16:23 accurate preaching and teaching on the subject. Accurate preaching and teaching on the subject. If the people, if the people of God are to act in faith with respect to the establishment of an eldership, they must act out of the conviction that it is the will of God. And this they cannot do unless they see the will of God clearly revealed in the Word of God.

16:51 And so often, there has been no establishment of a biblically functioning eldership simply because the people of God have erred not knowing the Scripture. And probably one of the most touching accounts of how this can be done is found in Spurgeon's biography. And I quote now from volume two of the edited version of his autobiography by Ian Murray called The Full Harvest. And this is what Spurgeon says with regard to this whole matter of giving biblical teaching and preaching on the subject of eldership.

17:35 Page one. Page 74. When I came to New Park Street, the church had deacons but no elders. And I thought from my study of the New Testament that there should be both orders of officers.

17:47 They are very useful when we can get them, the deacons to attend to all secular matters and the elders to devote themselves to the spiritual part of the work. This division of labor supplies an outlet for two different sorts of talent and allows two kinds of men to be serviced by the church. And this is the way that the church is made accessible to the church. And I am sure it's good to have two sets of brethren as officers instead of one set who have to do everything and who often become masters of the church instead of the servants as both deacons and elders should be.

18:21 As there were no elders at New Park Street, when I read and expounded the passages in the New Testament referring to elders, I used to say, this is an order of Christian workers which appears to have dropped out of existence. In apostolic times, they had both deacons and elders. But somehow the church has departed from this early custom. We have one preaching elder, that is, the pastor, and he is expected to perform all the duties of the eldership.

18:50 One and another of the members began to inquire of me. Ought not we as a church to have elders? Cannot we elect some of our brethren who are qualified to fill the office? I answered, we'd better not disturb the existing state of affairs.

19:06 But some enthusiastic young men said they would propose at the church meeting that elders should be appointed. Ultimately, we did appoint them with the unanimous consent of the members. I did not force the question upon them. I only showed them that it was scriptural.

19:25 And then, of course, they wanted to carry it into effect. And then he goes on to describe how God used these elders in the work, in the instruction, in the teaching, in the teaching, in the teaching, in the teaching, in the teaching, in the teaching, in the teaching, in the teaching, in the teaching, in the teaching, and he usually had about 25 of them. So he wasn't glutted with a large congregation having 60, 70, 80 half-qualified men, but apparently they maintained a high standard of biblical qualification. Well, I trust under God that if your people are a true people of God who love the Word of God and love the ways of God, that you will, by preaching and teaching, cultivate, that garden of God in which the Lord has placed you as an official gardener, and do so by teaching and preaching on this subject. Now, this does not mean that your first series of sermons ought to be on the subject of the eldership. Gain their confidence and in due time wisely introduce the subject, perhaps not at first, with a 10 or 15 series messages on the subject, but begin, perhaps, to do what Spurgeon did in expounding other passages where elders are mentioned. Pause and drop a seed and then water it with your own prayers and pray that the Spirit of God

20:54 will make it germinate and then pick up that strand again. And then in due course, God will give you wisdom to know the precise time that you ought to give a more consistent, concentrated series on the subject. But then there is a second cultivation or method of cultivation and cultivating tool in your hands, and it's what I'm calling pastoral encouragement of specific individuals. Pastoral encouragement of specific individuals.

21:28 As you are praying and as you are instructing your people, you must be looking for men who begin to evidence both gifts and graces for the work.

21:42 Since 1 Timothy 3.1 indicates the legitimacy of desire and 1 Peter 5 the necessity of desire, men must take the oversight not of constraint but willingly. There must be a consent of their own wills, often the most qualified or the most reluctant, because the very thing that qualifies them is an abundance of the grace of humility. So they are not sitting around in the corner pouting, wondering when in the world will this bunch of people recognize Mr. Great Gift.

22:20 Rather, they are busily going about their God-given task, ministering to God's people, increasingly being recognized by the rank and file of God's people as spiritually-minded men, men of leadership capacity, but they are the last ones to make an accurate assessment of the degree, to which they have grown in stature before God's people. They do not see themselves as they really are. Being spiritually-minded men, they see all of the chinks yet left in their armor. They see all of the irregularities of their hearts and of their own lives, and they do not, as it were, stand in front of the mirror preening themselves and admiring their spirituality.

23:10 And therefore you, as one who has, this intimate relationship to your people, must come from your knees and the growing conviction that God's hand seems to be resting upon a given individual and engage in pastoral encouragement of specific individuals. Prayerfully seize opportunities to ask such questions as these. My brother, do you have any inclinations to the work of the eldership?

23:44 What do you feel you lack in order, realistically, to aspire to the office?

23:51 If you get positive responses from those questions, you can begin to ask, what can we do to work on the areas of real deficiency?

24:03 You may, in assessing the response to such questions, seek to dissipate some of this brother's false modesty.

24:18 You may have to help him with Romans 12 to ascertain and assess realistically what his gifts are. You may want to put a book in his hands, such as The Elders of the Church by Lawrence Ayers, or a series of tapes, and say, look, at your leisure, listen to these, read the book, let's get together and discuss the matter. Now you see, you are not coming to him as though you were the oracle saying, the Lord has revealed to me that you will eventually become an elder. You are not coming to him and saying, the Lord has revealed to me that you ought to become an elder.

24:50 All you are doing is helping him in the context of the body of Christ to a more realistic assessment of what may well be his ultimate sphere of usefulness and ministry within the body of Christ. The Bible clearly tells us, lay hands suddenly on no man. Do these things without partiality. Your encouragement alone cannot constitute the man an elder.

25:18 He must be growing in the esteem of the people. He must have a grip upon their affections and upon their consciences. I'm fully conscious of all of that. Remember, I'm not talking in a vacuum.

25:30 I'm talking from a situation where we had no elders. We had one man, yours truly recognized as leader to establish a church. And we started from that ground level to the place where by God's blessing we have known something, I trust, of a harmonious, functioning eldership that meets the biblical criteria outlined in the thesis of last week. But then you do have, fully recognizing all of these principles, the responsibility to keep your eye open for faithful men.

26:06 These things commit to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. So there must be the use of this cultivation, this cultivating tool of pastoral encouragement of specific individuals. But someone objects and says, well, suppose word gets out that I've encouraged Brother A, but I haven't encouraged Brother B. And Brother B has aspirations to the eldership where Brother A doesn't.

26:36 Isn't there a possibility of jealousy? Sure there is. So what?

26:42 That's just one of the liabilities of doing your job. It's the same way when we ask some of you to teach and preach in situations that we don't ask others. Isn't there a possibility that some of the guys will be jealous and have their nose bent? Sure.

26:55 So what? Are we to back off from our duty because some aren't mature enough to see people perform their duty and acquiesce with joy? That's their problem. And you have to come to the place where you're prepared to let people have their noses bent.

27:13 You must do what God says you must do. But then there's a third cultivating tool that God has put in your hands, not only preaching and teaching on the subject, pastoralizing, pastoral encouragement of specific individuals, but thirdly, pastoral awareness of the grassroots thinking of your flock. Pastoral awareness of the grassroots thinking of your flock.

27:41 If God is constituting a man an overseer, there is almost invariably a groundswell of general consensus on the part of well-instructed and discerning people in your congregation. As someone has accurately said, the office does not make the man. Rather, it is the making of the man which prepares him for the office. The office does not make the man.

28:13 Rather, it's the making of the man which prepares him for the office. And it is God's work in making the man and preparing him for the office that is a work that goes on in the context of the life of the church. And therefore, discerning people will recognize God's work. They will recognize it in the degree to which this brother is able to lead them to the throne of grace unto edification.

28:44 They will recognize it in finding themselves drawn out to seek his counsel. And as you move amongst your people and you have your ears open, you will begin to get some indication that God is indeed constituting this man an overseer amongst his people. And these are things, brethren, that you simply cannot put down on paper and write them out and feed them in to a computer. These are part or this constitutes part of that whole dynamic of Jesus Christ as the head of his church, as the life of his church, the nourisher and the cherisher of his church, giving a man as a gift to his church. And the church will sense, as it were, when the hand of Christ is reaching down from heaven or out of the midst of the gathered assembly and setting another overseer before them. And the people of God will recognize the work of Christ.

29:55 You say, how in the world do you teach a man to be sensitive to that? You can't. This is part of what I call the pastoral instincts that God gives a man. And if you don't have those instincts and they don't seem to be developing, then I think you need seriously to question whether or not you're called to the work of oversight.

Practical Directives for Establishing a Biblical Eldership: Recognition

30:18 All right? There is the matter, then, of supplication, crying to God that he would make men into true overseers, prepare the people to recognize and receive them. Then there is cultivation by preaching, cultivation by pastoral encouragement, by pastoral sensitivity, but then thirdly, there is recognition. Supplication, cultivation, recognition.

30:47 If there's to be the establishment of the biblical eldership, there must be formal recognition of those whom the Lord has raised up in your midst. Now, under this heading, I'll address myself to the question of the mechanics of discovering the will of God and the work of Christ in giving an overseer. But here, as in so many areas of doctrine and practice, church history shows us a pattern of extremes, a pattern of imbalances, and of partial recognition of the biblical data. Now, as you read more, you'll become aware of this tragic history.

31:30 And what I desire to do is to lay before you the biblical principles that will help you trust to be immunized from these extremes. First of all, then, no pattern of recognition is adequate.

31:46 No pattern of recognition is adequate unless it operates within the perspective that no man, group of men, or congregation can make a man an elder.

32:05 No pattern of recognition is adequate unless it operates within the perspective that no man, group of men, or congregation can make a man an elder.

32:20 Often, in church history, the debate is focused on the question, who has the right to ordain a man to the office, that is, to make him an overseer, a bishop in the diocesan situation, the presbytery, the congregation? Well, the question is wrong. Ephesians, Ephesians 4 said, it is the prerogative of the ascended Christ to give gifts.

32:47 Now, Bannerman, on this point, is very clear. He says, ordination does not confer the office. Christ confers the office by his own call, addressed to whom he will. But ordination invests with the office or admits to it.

33:08 Ordination is the formal admission to the office. It does not confer the office. Christ gives shepherds and teachers. It is the Holy Ghost who constitutes men overseers in his flock.

33:25 So no pattern of recognition is adequate unless it operates within that perspective.

33:33 Secondly, no pattern of recognition is adequate unless it focuses on a careful and realistic assessment of the office. No pattern of recognition is adequate unless it focuses on a careful and realistic assessment of a man's character and gifts of a man's character and gifts as set forth in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.

34:09 Here, the great head of the church has given us a transcript of his mind and will with reference to recognition. It's as though the Lord Jesus says from heaven, Do you want to know my people if I'm giving you a shepherd? Then look to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. If I'm giving you an overseer, one to shepherd you, one to rule over you in my name and by my word you will recognize my gift in terms of what I have said in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.

34:47 And brethren, you must not waffle on this point. I recently spoke at a presbytery meeting as some of you know and I had the temerity to say to those presbyters teaching and ruling presbyters I said, My dear members of presbytery when, oh when in the name of the God of heaven will you open up 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 when seeking to ascertain whether or not you ought to license a man or ordain a man for the work of the ministry. And Lord, lo and behold feedback came back to me that the very next day in that situation they were prepared to license a man or ordain a man who evidently did not manifest the requisite biblical gifts simply because they were fearful of disappointing those who had commended him. And one of the brethren had the courage to remind them of what the Baptist preacher had said to them the day before and they tabled the matter for the next presbytery meeting. Now I tell you brethren that makes my blood run hot that King Jesus should be so utterly ignored in his church. No pattern of recognition whether for someone to be set apart to labor in the word and in doctrine or to be in the language that is often used a ruling elder

36:15 though I don't use the terminology it is fixed terminology and has significance and so we ought not to be embarrassed by the term. No pattern of recognition is adequate if it does not focus on a careful and realistic assessment of a man's character and gifts in the light of those passages and you must stand your ground first of all with regard to your own recognition for the office and then with elders and if you waffle at any point with regard to your own you're never going to do it with regard to others and make it stick and I'm convinced that's why many men can't do it with a good conscience because they know if they began to insist on it for others sooner or later somebody would say et tu brute? How about you?

37:09 How about you?

37:12 All right? Thirdly, no pattern of recognition is adequate no pattern of recognition is adequate unless it secures an expression of recognition from the people of God and the existing oversight. No pattern of recognition is adequate unless it secures an expression of recognition you may want to use the word consent I like recognition better because recognition points to the fact that we're looking to see what another has done consent puts it leaves us more open to the idea of subjective desire and inclination so that's why I've chosen the word recognition an expression of recognition from the people of God and the existing oversight now since the overseer or the bishop is to lead he cannot do so if he does not have a grip on the hearts and consciences of those whom he seeks to lead you see spiritual leadership is dependent upon securing the approbation of the consciences of those whom we lead if they do not regard us as men of God we cannot lead them by the word of God and therefore it's essential to have a method of recognition which allows

38:41 the presence or absence of this grip upon the conscience to be made evident likewise with the existing eldership since this person being contemplated must function harmoniously with realistic diversity of gift and the rest part of our thesis but harmoniously then there ought to be the unqualified consent of the existing eldership that God has indeed so constituted this man and so developed him in gift and grace that we are able to function harmoniously with him far better to have three elders functioning harmoniously than to have four or five that are continually stumbling over each other because there's bad chemistry between them and they cannot function as a unit and do not exemplify those principles of true parity and yet diversity and mutual trust and confidence and all of those other factors now the act six passage is most instructive at this point not as a one to one equivalent but as containing some vital principles for the recognition of people to perform specific functions within the church now without going into the moot

40:10 question of whether act six contains in seminal form the institution of the diaconate we'll get into that somewhat god willing next week this much is clear that when it came to the recognition of men for a specific function in the church first of all the initiative came from the existing leadership verses one and two in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying there arose a murmuring and the twelve the existing leadership called the multitude of the disciples the rank and file of god's people and said it is not fit that we should forsake the word of god and serve tables look ye out therefore brethren from among you so the initiative of the existing christ giving leadership is underscored in this passage then secondly we have the cooperation of the existing christ called community or assembly in accordance with a divine standard look ye out among you therefore brethren and here's the standards seven men of good report full of the holy spirit and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business verse five and the saying please the whole multitude and they chose

41:39 stephen a man full of faith and of the holy spirit so you had the initiative of the existing leadership securing the activity of the existing assembly of god's people and then the passage concludes with the concurrence of the existing leadership with the activity of the assembly verse six whom they set before the apostles and when they had prayed they laid their hands upon the apostles and they upon them so you have a directive coming from the existing leadership you have that consensus of the activity of the existing assembly or congregation and then you have this beautiful concurrence the elders then formally setting these people apart the apostles setting them apart for their task but then in addition to this you have the clear principle implied in first timothy three and titus one if we assume that timothy and titus simply use these directives to act on behalf of the apostles it is unthinkable that they would not consult the congregation as to whether or not men met that standard now some say titus and timothy acted without congregational vote or suffrage or consent they were told to appoint elders

43:07 titus one five and the assumption of first timothy is that timothy was to look out men who met this standard alright if we even give for the sake of argument that point when it says they must have a good testimony from them that are without must rule well their own household can you conceive of timothy or titus seeking to ascertain whether those standards were met without consulting with the rank and file of god's people in ephesus and in crete if they had any spiritual sensitivity at all of course they would have so they would have been locking in to congregational consensus informally even though they may not have done so formally but he who asserts must prove and when people say that timothy and titus acted as bishops and simply appointed the burden of proof rests upon people who make that assertion to demonstrate the validity of it exegetically and i think it would be a task that i would not want to have rather i believe those standards are given that the people of god might think and act in the light of them under the guidance of titus and of timothy and that they might remain the abiding deposit for the churches throughout all ages to have a basis of evaluating

44:35 men who aspire to this office and then furthermore we cannot discount the use of the word chirotoneo in the key passage acts fourteen twenty three in its only other use in the new testament second corinthians eight nineteen the idea of suffrage is very clearly present in the verse second corinthians eight and verse nineteen not only so but who was also appointed by the churches to travel with us in the matter of this grace chirotoneo and that is and john owen haslin detailed discussion of the classical uses will use the biblical use of this word volume sixteen volume sixteen page sixty and following and that's found within a larger section on the whole subject of recognition it is bounded by pages fifty four to seventy four twenty pages but within that he has a discussion of the use chirotoneo and of the various words that could be usedborg right does Luke choose that? There are several Greek words that would emphasize unilateral appointment. They are used frequently in the New Testament. Why does Luke reach, as it

46:00 were, into this exotic bag of Greek verbs and say that when they had appointed for them elders in every city, using a word which etymologically means the stretching out of the hand, and was the common term used to describe the activity of what we would call in our day voting or corporate recognition. Now the actual mechanics of this process of recognition may and should vary from place to place, but the principle that the congregation must be given some opportunity to express its conviction that a man does indeed meet the biblical standard, that must be given. Now whether it's done by a secret ballot, whether it's done by the elders announcing that brother so-and-so will be recognized as an elder as of the first of such-and-such a time, a month, in such-and-such a year, and give the people a month in which, as they think of him in that capacity, in the light of the word of God, if they have any reservations, they can come to the existing elders. In other words, brother so-and-so will be recognized as an elder as of the first of such-and-such a time, as they think of him in that capacity, in the light of the mechanics of how this is done. Can and, I say in some situations, should differ in terms

47:28 of the maturity of the people, the background of their thinking, if they've been strongly congregational, the whole idea of anything that borders on a vote may bring into their minds a perspective that is totally unbiblical. We make men elders, and if you give them a chance to just raise a hand or fill out a ballot, you'll never kill that mentality. So in that situation...

47:50 You may have to go to a totally different set of principles, but whatever the mechanics are, I say they are not adequate in the light of the biblical data, unless there is some opportunity for an expression of recognition from the people of God, as well as from the existing oversight. Then you will also find some very helpful material in Owen, Volume...

48:24 15, page 493 to 496. That's his little catechism on the church. And then may I say you can't hold to the London Confession of Faith on this point unless you have some opportunity for the people of God to express their recognition. In the section on the church, chapter 26, paragraph 9, the way appointed by Christ for the calling of any person fitted and gifted by the Spirit...

48:58 15, page 493 to 496. ... unto the office of bishop or elder in a church, is that he be chosen thereunto by the common suffrage of the church itself. And the text cited is Acts 14, 23, solemnly set apart by fasting and prayer, with imposition of the hands of the eldership of the church, if there be any before constituted therein, and of a deacon, that he be chosen by the like suffrage, and set apart by prayer, and the like imposition of hands. All right? So much then for the first major division of our material this morning, directives for the establishing of a biblical eldership. Now then, let's move on to the second division

Directives for Efficient Functioning: Relationship to Fellow Elders

49:46 of our study, some practical directives for securing the efficient functioning of a biblical eldership. Some practical directives for securing the efficient functioning...

50:01 ... of a biblical eldership. And I've broken these directives down into two major categories, A and B. A, directives pertaining to your relationship to your fellow elders, directives pertaining to your relationship to your fellow elders, and then B, directives pertaining to your labors with your fellow elders. And there's a method in my madness in approaching these directives. You can never hope efficiently to function with your fellow elders in ministerial labor if you are not properly relating to them as fellow believers and as brothers in Christ.

50:56 Any snags in your personal relationship will show up in your ministerial functions together. All right? Directives then pertaining to your relationship to your fellow elders. Your efficiency in labor will be conditioned greatly by your relationship to them as Christian brothers. If distance, suspicion, lack of trust and respect or ill will are found in your relationship to them as Christian men, you simply cannot function efficiently as co-overseers of the flock of God. Moreover, the more intimate any human relationship is, the more potential there is for the eruption of remaining sin. And all of you who are married know this by experience. The person you loved above all others in terms of those of the opposite sex has been the very instrument to show you dimensions of your heart that you never knew existed. I don't hear your amens but you ought to say them anyway. It's

52:06 the truth. You never knew what a rotten creature you were till you got married. But you should do it. I mean after the marriage you were not ready for sex, you were not ready to be married, and you were never ready for faith. And the moment you were married, you were not You thought you were bad, but the situation was verser yet than you ever thought. Well, in a little way, that's what happens when you try to develop a biblical eldership. The very brother that you admired as a sterling man of God from a relative distance, when you begin to enter into the multi-leveled intimacy of true parity of oversight, it's sort of like what happened when he got married. And you begin to see dimensions of his character and other things that begin to grate you, that begin to irritate you, and he begins to see things about you that the rank and file of God's people don't see.

52:52 Now, that does not mean that you both have been hypocrites living a double life. It doesn't mean that at all. It simply means that areas of unmortified sin, areas of remaining corruption, are pushed to the surface in that more intimate relationship, that simply are not manifested in the more general relationship that you sustain to the flock of God. And so, brethren, it is vital, it is vital, that you get hold of some biblical directives pertaining to your relationship to your fellow elders, and face realistically the fact that as you seek to implement biblical perspectives with regard to eldership, you're going to find struggles that you never found before. Now, let me give you two exhortations that go out of this. Number one, maintain harmonious relationships to them as brethren. Maintain harmonious relationships to them as brethren.

53:57 All that the Bible says to believers as believers in this area, you must apply with unusual vigor. Such directives as Ephesians 4, 1 and 2, 29 to 32, Philippians 2, 1, all of these passages that call the people of God in general to mutual submission, to be clothed with humility, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Those passages must constantly stand before you as you seek to maintain harmonious relationships with your fellow elders simply as your brethren in the body of Christ. You must pour over 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 13 frequently and cry to God for the love that bears all things, the love that is not easily provoked, the love that believes all things and hopes all things. And then, of course, you must, you must follow the injunction, yea, all of you be clothed with humility. Pray that God will clothe you with humility. See, the congregation is watching you, and if there's anything in your relationship to your fellow, to elders, that indicates the absence of these graces, they'll pick up on it.

55:16 You'll need 1 Peter 4, 8 again and again. Have fervent love among yourselves, for love shall cover a multitude of sins. And in your regular elders' meetings, the quirks, the little sins that mark imperfection or indicate imperfection and lack of conformity to Christ, they'll surface. And because you've got to be close to them frequently, they can begin to irritate.

55:41 You'll find that one brother does a certain thing a certain way, and another brother does something, and you'll just begin to find irritants surfacing. And they'll begin to see things surfacing in you that irritate them.

55:57 Well, it's the real test of whether or not you're determined to have a truly God-honoring eldership. If you're committed to maintain harmonious relationships with them as brethren, and my second exhortation is, maintain proper brotherhood, biblical attitudes to them as fellow overseers. Maintain proper biblical attitudes to them as fellow overseers. This teaching of parity of eldership has great practical and personal implications.

56:30 You must look upon them as your peers in oversight, though you may not be their peer in public ministry. You've got to wear a different hat.

56:40 And some men can't do that, because they are rightly recognized as their peers in public ministry. As being able to speak with greater authority and with weight on biblical matters, because they labor in the word and in doctrine, they have more tools for exposition and the accurate setting forth of the mind of God in scripture. When they sit in council with their fellow elders as overseers, it's hard for them to acknowledge that they are truly peers, that they sit on a par with them. Now, granted, years' experience may be such that the brethren will recognize in the one who labors in the word and in teaching that measure of respect and deference due to experience and all of the rest. I'm not denying that. I'm not negating that. But it's so essential for those of you who, for the most part, will be the prime teachers in your congregations to look upon your fellow elders as peers in the work of oversight.

57:45 And you must regard your fellow elders and their input as essential and not merely formal. Here's where some men get into trouble.

57:56 They look upon the input of their fellow overseers as a formal necessity.

58:04 If we're to give the semblance that the thing is really functioning, then we've got to be able to say the elders discussed it. But they do not look upon the input of their fellow elders as essential, as valuable, especially when it utterly contradicts their own perspective on the matter.

58:28 Do you really seek to listen to your fellow elders? Well, brethren, I'm going to say something now and I'm going to stick my neck out. I doubt you will ever listen to the counsel of your fellow elders when you are an elder if you don't listen to the counsel of your elders now and you don't listen to the counsel of your peers now.

58:48 Do you take counsel now while you're not an elder? Or do you set your mind on what you're going to do, seek advice, and then still do what you want to do?

59:01 Excuse me for preaching. But I have seen it. I have seen it again and again. Men preparing to be elders and saying they believe in a parity of eldership and that they're going to submit to the counsel of their brethren when they're not yet elders and they defy the counsel of their elders.

59:23 I think you're fooling yourself. If you cannot take counsel now from your elders and counsel from your peers, what makes you think you'll do it when you are an elder? Hmm? So you better ask yourself with judgment day honesty, Lord, do I take the counsel of my peers?

59:43 Do I listen to my brethren? My brethren in the academy who know me, who love me, who have God's best as their longing for me. Do I listen to them? Or do I merely receive into the outer vestibule of my ear the vibrations that come out over their larynx?

60:01 Articulated by lips and tongue and palate and teeth and then go on and do my own cotton-picking thing anyway?

60:11 Brethren, I plead with you to ask that question with judgment day honesty.

60:17 Because I've seen elderships destroyed by men who had a beautiful theory of parity but had never learned the discipline of submission to counsel. They'd never learned it. And remember, I say these things as one who has a fellow elder sitting here who's a man of enough conviction that if I were not living, but I'm telling you, I hope he would rise up and tell me to shut my mouth on this point.

60:45 I don't care what image people out there have of Pastor Martin. He's a man under authority whose conscience is clear when he speaks on the issue of being submissive to authority.

61:00 He's yours. He's your conscience clear this morning. What counsel have you taken that's made you bite your own opinions in the past six months? What counsel have you taken that causes you to be so lost you something in the way of saying no to your own inclination?

61:19 It's a good question to ask. And while I leave you to ask it, ask it honestly. Because the time is coming when if this area has not been developed, it's going to surface. It's going to surface.

61:33 And the truth will out. And when it does, I don't want to be around to pick up the pieces.

Directives for Efficient Functioning: Labors with Fellow Elders

61:39 All right? Now then, quickly, directives pertaining to your labors with your fellow elders. I tried to give you a few practical directives about, about how to cultivate your relationship to your fellow elders. Now some directives pertaining to your labors with your fellow elders.

62:00 And it won't take me long to get through this. And so we'll go through it. And then we may have questions. Number one, establish a weekly meeting for prayer and consultation.

62:17 Establish from the outset a weekly meeting for prayer and consultation. A minimum, of a weekly meeting. If the task of oversight is one of caring for the flock, then any man who's too busy to meet with his other elder or elders for prayer and consultation has no business taking the office. The elders among you, I exhort, exercise the oversight.

62:43 Well, if a man is too busy to meet with his fellow overseers to do that work, he has no business taking the office. And it's possible that a man could be qualified, but not in God's providence, have time available to do the work. If not, he ought not to take the office.

63:03 You must make the time. And then you must establish that barring unusual providential interventions, that time will be given top priority.

63:17 Now, such a meeting should be characterized, obviously, by prayerfulness, by submission to the word of God, by transparent openness with one another, by the free exchange of information. And brethren, this is one task that you must labor at. As the work grows and more and more work is delegated, you can very easily have things going on under the more direct work of one elder that becomes, as it were, his thing. And if it's not within the orbit of the awareness of the other elders, you'll be caught in very, very embarrassing situations.

63:58 People will pit one elder against another. And they'll try to make fools of you. And many a time it's been our salvation that we have good communication because we caught someone after they got to the second elder. They really thought they were going to go around and manipulate the eldership.

64:14 They were stupid enough. And God let them hang themselves.

64:19 And then they sometimes tell one story to one to get a certain response, another story to another. Well, you see how vital it is that you have this regular, meeting for prayer and consultation marked by prayerfulness, submission to the word of God, transparent openness by the free flow of information. It's very interesting in the larger catechism in the section dealing with the fifth commandment, some very helpful instruction in terms of this matter of transparency and openness. Question 131.

64:55 What are the duties of equals? So here you are as equals in oversight. Here are your duties. To regard the dignity and worth of each other.

65:05 In giving honor to go one before another and to rejoice in each other's gifts and advancement as their own. Those are the duties of equals. What a wonderful thing when elders sit in council regarding the dignity and worth of each other, giving honor to go one before another. Before another and rejoicing in each other's gifts and advancement as their own.

65:33 What are the sins of equals? The sins of equals are besides the neglect of the duties required, the undervaluing of the worth, envying the gifts, grieving at the advancement or prosperity of another, and usurping preeminence one over another. Those are the sins of many elderships which bring the very institution into reproach. So seek to establish a regular meeting, minimum, a weekly meeting for prayer and consultation.

66:09 Then, secondly, establish a functional division of labor. Establish a functional division of labor according to the nature and strength of gift, according to the nature and strength of gift, and availability of time.

66:34 Establish a functional division of labor according to the nature and strength of gift and availability of time. As you meet regularly, you'll get to know each other. Your peculiar aptitudes will emerge. Some of your elders will sow a much stronger gift for confrontational situations.

66:59 They'll have that peculiar blending of holy firmness to go into a relationship and take it in hand and confront a brother and yet coupled with meekness. Another brother will show very little gift in that area but tremendous gift in sorting out unusually complex marital problems. Show a real gift in restructuring a marriage.

67:24 Others will show strength of gift in other areas. Well, what you need to do is you get to know the measure of each other's gifts. And this, again, is why you can't just put this down in a formula. I often get asked questions in pastors' conferences when we talk about this matter of eldership.

67:43 And people want a little manual that anticipates all of the various possibilities of combinations of gifts and who does what. And it's purely mechanical. You can't do it. For instance, in our own eldership, when one of our elders changed his job immediately, immediately, 20 to 25 hours a week became available to him that were not available previous to that change of job situation.

68:10 And when he made it known that he was willing to invest those hours in the work of oversight, well, we immediately dumped all kinds of work on him that hitherto he was unable to do. And he's been able to set up regular counseling sessions with troubled married couples and meet with them on a weekly basis, restructure marriages, and then back off, and then dismiss the case and take on another one. Well, that's something we couldn't have anticipated. It was dumped on us as it were overnight.

68:38 But when it was dumped on us, we had an obligation to see to it that there was work that would take up those hours that were now available. And likewise, we could never have anticipated that the correspondence load would be what it was. Well, in a unique way, God has suited Pastor Clark for that very ministry. So all of the general correspondence from the tapeman, all of that's been dumped upon him.

69:01 Well, we may not have if the Lord should take on the work of oversight. We may not take him in the next couple of years. We may not have another Pastor Clark. So we'll have to then say, now what do we do with this division of labor?

69:11 Can we function within the eldership with it? Or will it have to be transferred outside the eldership? Well, you see, within our given situation, it's never static. So how much less can you predict what it will be in another situation with a totally different set of gifts and a totally different chemistry and all of those things that simply can't be predicted?

69:33 So, what you must seek to do is get hold of the principle that you're aiming at establishing a functional division of labor according to the nature and strength of gift and the availability of time.

69:50 And those are the two basic directives I would lay before you concerning your labors with your elders and within that broad framework. Then there are many, many other things that will emerge. And as I went over the whole matter of principle, reworking the materials for today, I said, surely, Lord, there must be more I can tell the men than that. And then I just tried to approach it in my own mind from a differing perspective and said, there surely must be more that I can tell them than that.

70:20 Well, I've come up to this hour saying, no, I don't think there is. Those are the broad, general principles and then in the application of them in dependence upon the Spirit of God, you will have to learn the specifics and the concreteness of your own circumstances as God brings you into them. Well, that's all I have to say this morning. That leaves us a little time for discussion and interaction that may be necessary.